So what’s next?

[GMDino]

(06-04-2020, 08:29 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: I know that I come across as pretty doom and gloom with this stuff. Part of it comes from some research I have done on democracy and how they have risen and fallen. I know, my pleasure reading is so cheerful and bright. In all seriousness, though, the things we have been seeing in this country point to a decline in our democracy. I'm not just talking about Trump, but the years leading up to him. Trump is a tyrant, that is my view on things, but the groundwork was laid for him to act the way he has by many people before him that have held office in our nation's capital.

It's not just me seeing this, either. There are people with much more knowledge and experience on this topic than myself that are seeing this (who wrote the books, after all?) and are trying to get this message out. On Tuesday, there was an article in the Washington Post about CIA analysts with experience in these things commenting about what they were seeing here in the US. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/cia-veterans-who-monitored-crackdowns-abroad-see-troubling-parallels-in-trump-handling-of-protests/2020/06/02/7ab210b8-a4f6-11ea-bb20-ebf0921f3bbd_story.html


There is more at the link. Open it in private/incognito mode if you want to read it. This writing has been on the walls for a while. I probably come off as paranoid or hyperbolic when I talk about the decline of our democracy, and I get that, I do. But when you have done the research I have on democracies around the world, read accounts of analysts describing the events leading up to autocratic takeovers and seeing distinct parallels, and read analyses from academics that have spent their entire careers studying the way democracies form and decay, it's hard not to be worried about the state of our nation.

Truthfully, in this time of upheaval right now, I am probably the most calm about everything that I have been in a long time. What's going on now is not unexpected when you look at what has been happening.

This post gave a couple thoughts:

1) I am not as well read on the subject as you or others but I've felt this way for 30 years.  We are young as a country but old as a united country.

2) In the past such upheaval would eventually run into "norms" whether they be good or bad.  And the government could get us back on a even keel.  That is sorely lacking right now which is my cause for concern.  The lack of spine from the right (in this case) to question anything and the judiciary pretty much just saying they don't want to decide political matters.